Solved AntiVirus, or no AntiVirus?

[MadSupra354]

My NIS 2012 is going to expire on the 31st, and I've not been planning to install a new AntiVirus, as I feel I'm under control and that all I'll require is the Norton toolbar which has recently been made available to download. If not, I'll be trying BitDefender, as I've heard it has the best detection and lowest false positive ratio, along with even lower resource usage than Norton.
What do you think I should do?

 

[maxie]

I use MSE and Windows firewall have never had any problems so far any how .

 

[Pauly]

ditch it all and use Microsoft Security Essentials - Microsoft Windows and Malwarebytes : Malwarebytes Anti-Malware removes malware including viruses, spyware, worms and trojans, plus it protects your computer for on demand scanner

 

[Borg 386]

There's a listing of AV's here & you can weigh the pros/cons of each.

http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/72070-whats-best-anti-virus.html

Many people in this forum use MSE combined with an on-demand scanner, such as Malwarebytes.

 

[MadSupra354]

I've thought about the same, I'm just not keen on any performance drops due to Anti-Virus.

 

[King Arthur]

MSE is very light on system resource usage and is very unintrusive in general, the only time MSE ever bothers you is if it possibly found a virus or some other kind of malware. MSE also probably gets along well with Windows the most out of all AV software, owing to the fact MSE is being maintained by Microsoft themselves.

 

[marsmimar]

What kind of performance drops are you anticipating? Personally, I'd rather give up a couple hundred megabytes of RAM (out of the 8GB on my machine), or 10% of my CPU for real-time monitoring, than to go through the hassle of getting infected, using a previous system image, updating things, etc.

The good thing about AVs today is many of the recommended products like MSE, Avast, Avira, Comodo, etc are totally free. You could always try one for a week or two, see how it actually performs on your machine, and then decide if you want an AV or not. Just remember to use an official product uninstaller to remove all traces of the AV product before installing another one.

Security Software | SingularLabs

 

[alikhan]

I have been using Bitdefender , In my opinion all antivirus softwares have one or another drawback/problems , some may be using heavy system resources, while another may be poor in security. Bitdefender is known to be one of the best in detection rate and is light on resources and also being rated highly by the reviewers.No antivirus is 100% perfect and getting above 90% in a review is itself very good.

 

[whs]

I never noticed any performance drops from NIS or MSE. I use both (on different systems of course) and I prefer NIS. But I would not recommend to work without an AV program. That would be a certain path to trouble.

 

[pincushion]

Personally I wouldn't run without an anti-virus or Internet protection and almost any of the top makes I would probably be happy with. It just so happens that I have been using NIS for many years and it has kept any malware off my system. I should be more worried than most since I do run as admin - yes, not recommended!

Free anti-virus is fine if it indeed does the job but if you can afford a computer ....

:huh:

 

[Wishmaster]

Yea, I wouldn't go without. To much out there that can be easily missed no matter how careful you are. If you will be on the internet, better have something.

Personally, Id stick with NIS. Not only for its definition based scans, but SONAR to detect new or unknown therats before they get you. Plus Spyware and Anti-SPAM.
Its actually one of the lightest suites out there considering all it does. Ive been running it for years on several PCS and haven't had a infection yet, although some Warnings and Quarantines have popped up.

I too have tried MSE and couldn't really see a performance difference between it and NIS. Perhaps some setups would? Not sure.
But being you can get it for a discount at Amazon for 25-30$ or so per year, I found it was really worth it for the extra features.


Either way, if you do not like it try something different.
But please, do not go without anything if you will be connected to and surfing the net.

 

[whs]

But being you can get it for a discount at Amazon for 25-30$ or so per year, I found it was really worth it for the extra features.

I got a few for free (only sales tax). Sometimes the big electronics chains (BestBuy, Staples, etc.) have an ad in the Sunday paper where you can get NIS for $69.95 with a $70 MIR - so in fact you only pay the sales tax and 4 weeks later you get your money back - if you mail in the MIR.

 

[M1GU31]

I suggest just getting a free alternative,better to have something then nothing. I use comodo internet security premium free and works extremely well for me. Has a free firewall/av combo. Totally recommend using it since there firewall is really good and there anti virus is pretty good also. Been using it for over 3 months and it has protected my pc from a couple threats and malicious sites and is successful at removing/blocking threats.

Also not really demanding at all on my systems, running it on my other older machine with xp and a pentium 4 with 1.5gb ram with no slow downs what so ever.

They have a paid version which gives some more features but there free version is really good and better then most free alternatives imho.

Free Internet Security - Download Internet Security Software Suit

 

[IoNGeNeRaL]

Bitdefender Total Security 2013 and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware works perfectly fine for me.

 

[MadSupra354]

Free anti-virus is fine if it indeed does the job but if you can afford a computer ....

:huh:

That's true, it's not like I don't have the money for one. I could keep my money if I had MSE, since I'm not likely to download something malicious. In the 4 years I had Norton, I barely downloaded 10 viruses.

 

[pincushion]

Free anti-virus is fine if it indeed does the job but if you can afford a computer ....

:huh:

That's true, it's not like I don't have the money for one. I could keep my money if I had MSE, since I'm not likely to download something malicious. In the 4 years I had Norton, I barely downloaded 10 viruses.

I must be doing something different then since in the more than 10 years with Norton I have had none - and as I said I do run as admin with UAC disabled on W7. I don't play games or do P2P file-sharing but not a saint elsewhere though. I guess whatever works for one ...

:huh:

 

[Wishmaster]

I believe Im not alone when I say, the Free version of Malwarebytes for a periodic manual scan is a very good idea regardless what AV you choose.

In regards to MadSupra354 comment about 10 viruses, Id probably be somewhere in that ballpark myself.

And by that I mean its blocked a couple websites on me or warned me to stop due to severl reports. Its also thrown up a couple messages in the past about a malicious attempt to attack, which it indeed blocked. And a couple times Sonar has went off stopping something it said was "suspicious"

Of course this over 3 PCs, and I do recall 1 false positive. That was a patcher for LA Noire, and if I recall it was SONAR that grabbed it. They fixed it though soon after.


Pincusion, if you look in NIS logs there very well may be some of these types of activities it has blocked and you missed the message or NIS just thought it wasn't important enough to bug you about. So it just took care of buisiness and left you alone. It does that sometimes for whatever reason, but usually just over small things.

 

[pincushion]

I believe Im not alone when I say, the Free version of Malwarebytes for a periodic manual scan is a very good idea regardless what AV you choose.

In regards to MadSupra354 comment about 10 viruses, Id probably be somewhere in that ballpark myself.

And by that I mean its blocked a couple websites on me or warned me to stop due to severl reports. Its also thrown up a couple messages in the past about a malicious attempt to attack, which it indeed blocked. And a couple times Sonar has went off stopping something it said was "suspicious"

Of course this over 3 PCs, and I do recall 1 false positive. That was a patcher for LA Noire, and if I recall it was SONAR that grabbed it. They fixed it though soon after.


Pincusion, if you look in NIS logs there very well may be some of these types of activities it has blocked and you missed the message or NIS just thought it wasn't important enough to bug you about. So it just took care of buisiness and left you alone. It does that sometimes for whatever reason, but usually just over small things.

He said downloaded, so I presume he had issues with them. I regularly check the NIS log and usually know when I should particularly have a look so I know it regularly blocks stuff. As I said, I have never been infected so NIS is doing what all good anti-malware does and is effective. With a bit of taming I find NIS is not too resource heavy - not any more than the OS if you do not do the same for that.

:huh: